Jack London is still a modern writer. He did live in the 19th and very early 20th centuries but his writing still seems fresh and current. His South Sea Tales do speak of the racism of the time but his writing about the people of the islands is respectful and admiring. In some stories the characters with bad characters are the white Americans and the good people are the islanders. London gathered his information about the South Pacific on his sailing trip on the Snark, a sailing ship he had built to his specifications. It was a costly trip, the ship was badly built and had to be nearly rebuilt in Hawaii. He and most of the crew became very ill from various tropical diseases and London spent several months in an Australian hospital before he was well enough to travel home to California. But the firsthand knowledge he gains informs the stories and makes them very real. ( )

A theme current in much of London's work is a Darwinian struggle to survive. His works epitomize a sort of literary naturalism. And never more so than in the collection of stories contained in South Sea Tales. Probably the most notable of them is the last one in the collection, "The Seed of McCoy," where a schooner in distress anchors outside Pitcairn's Island, the home of the descendants who mutinied aboard the HMS Bounty. During the course of the story, McCoy recounts the fate of the mutineers, and the captain of the endangered schooner realizes it is the blood of those men that runs through McCoy's veins and is all that stands between him and death. "The Seed of McCoy" is also one of London's best pure adventure tales, with disaster nipping at the heels of the crew and captain unceasingly until the very end.

As South Sea stories go, these are among the very best. But always look beneath the mere adventure to the motivations that power London's stories. The White Man's Burden, the natural virtues of the Wild Men of the islands, the overwhelming forces of nature--they are all there commenting on our ability to survive. ( )

I found these stories quite gripping at times. The South Pacific islands weren't holiday destinations in the nineteenth-century but were riddled with hurricanes, cannibals and disease, a perfect setting for these stories. Also the narrator does a great job in bringing these stories to life. ( )

I enjoyed this collection a lot more than I thought I would. Some stories are much better than others, as is the case in general with these sorts of collections, but on the whole, I thought each story had something of interest to offer. What surprised me the most was London’s portrayal of the harsh realities of colonialism and how the islanders suffer from colonial greed and brutality. The sympathy to the islanders was what drew me to many of these stories, since these are, to some extent, criticisms of the colonial way.

Favorites from this collection: The House of Mapuhi, Mauki, “Yah! Yah Yah!” The Inevitable White Man. There were no stories in this collection that I straight up disliked, but those four were ones that I greatly enjoyed. London’s depiction of the islands effortlessly drew me in; they were so detailed and vibrant, that I felt as if I were there. I also loved his characters; they felt so real, that I can’t help but think that they must have been based on real people.

Definitely pick it up if you’re a London fan; if you’re at all interested in colonial writings, this is something to check out as well. I wouldn’t say it’s a must-read, but it’s interesting and provides some insight to life in the colonized islands.

Also posted on Purple People Readers. ( )

Good short stories on XIX century adventures in the Pacific, vivid, imaginative, but dated perhaps in its handling of les Noirs ( )